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The Grammar Thread

I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread to post all the different misused words and
other abominations of the English language found on Pacersdigest. I know I could use some help occasionally.

My contribution is the word dominate. This is constantly used when people should be using the word dominant.
For instance, Paul George was dominate in the 3rd quarter last night. Wrong. The correct usage is "Paul George was dominant in the 3rd quarter last night.

I believe the incorrect usage is "I couldn't care less" which is a double negative which means you care.

Excellent Rik!! But how much less could you care? :-)

The CORRECT usage is "I couldn't care less."

It isn't a double negative because "not" modifies "could" while "less" modifies "care". "I couldn't care more", while not as cliché a phrase, is valid in the same way (meaning "I am caring the maximum about this").

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BillS

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

Re: The Grammar Thread

It isn't a double negative because "not" modifies "could" while "less" modifies "care". "I couldn't care more", while not as cliché a phrase, is valid in the same way (meaning "I am caring the maximum about this").

Yep.

It is clearly quite possible for owl to "care less" about grammar issues.

Re: The Grammar Thread

I'm to busy two add much too this thread right now, but its about time this topic got it's dew.

Last edited by Slick Pinkham; 11-09-2013 at 11:44 AM.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

Re: The Grammar Thread

It isn't a double negative because "not" modifies "could" while "less" modifies "care". "I couldn't care more", while not as cliché a phrase, is valid in the same way (meaning "I am caring the maximum about this").

Re: The Grammar Thread

I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread to post all the different misused words and
other abominations of the English language found on Pacersdigest. I know I could use some help occasionally.

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Hicks For This Useful Post:

Re: The Grammar Thread

I think we've reached the point where the people who whine about incorrect grammar are more obnoxious than the people who use incorrect grammar.

On a side note, and since this is pretty much an off-topic thread, is it possible I could get a username change? This one's been outdated for nearly two years now, and it looks like it will become really outdated by the time next summer rolls around, if not the upcoming trade deadline.

Re: The Grammar Thread

I think we've reached the point where the people who whine about incorrect grammar are more obnoxious than the people who use incorrect grammar.

It's definitely a polarizing topic. A few months ago I had several people waging war against me for correcting a fellow poster on a grammar issue. I think most of us that "whine" about grammar aren't really asking for people to use perfection punctuation and sentence structure. It's really about the basics that are misused everywhere.

Re: The Grammar Thread

Who is this Grammar guy and what do he do for the Pacers?

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
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Re: The Grammar Thread

To be honest, the word that's usually misused in my presence...whether it be here, at work, with friends....is the word 'literally'.

For instance, I was talking with a guy at work (who's taking college courses, none-of-the-less), and said..."I saw her pic of her in only a t-shirt and panties on her facebook page, and my jaw literally dropped to the floor!"

Re: The Grammar Thread

To be honest, the word that's usually misused in my presence...whether it be here, at work, with friends....is the word 'literally'.

For instance, I was talking with a guy at work (who's taking college courses, none-of-the-less), and said..."I saw her pic of her in only a t-shirt and panties on her facebook page, and my jaw literally dropped to the floor!"

I bet I hear this word misused, at least, two times a week.

I hear it or see it misused at least three times a day. It's so widely misused that I think it's meaning is starting to morph into more of an "emphasis" word.

Re: The Grammar Thread

Effect is a noun. If you are trying to use it as a verb you are almost always wrong unless you know exactly why you are using it.

Affect is a verb. Most people don't end up using this wrong, but sometimes they do.

"The final Effect was Affected by the size of the great big gun."

An example of the obscure usage:

"The psychological Affect was Effected through use of mind-altering chemicals."

Now my mother the English teacher might stop spinning in her urn a bit

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Agreed on this one--a pet peeve of mine too. It's the obscure uses that you point out that cause problems with many people (in which "effect" is a verb and "affect" is a noun). Thank goodness those two uses only come up in specific situations as more technical terms (in psychology ("affect" as noun), for example, and in the reporting of experimental results ("effect" as verb)). For the most part, it's a good rule of thumb to think about it like you report here, with "affect" generally only used as a verb and "effect" really only used as a noun.

Re: The Grammar Thread

To be honest, the word that's usually misused in my presence...whether it be here, at work, with friends....is the word 'literally'.

For instance, I was talking with a guy at work (who's taking college courses, none-of-the-less), and said..."I saw her pic of her in only a t-shirt and panties on her facebook page, and my jaw literally dropped to the floor!"

I bet I hear this word misused, at least, two times a week.

His use of the word literally is not meant to be taken literally. He isn't using that word cause he doesn't understand what it means, he is using it wrongly on purpose cause, as cdash said, it puts an emphasis on what he is saying.

The one I hate is "a part" and "apart".

a part = to be part of something
apart = to not be part of something

They have the complete opposite meaning, but people repeatably use apart when they mean a part.

Re: The Grammar Thread

Heh. I talked to a guy who told me that he "literally" turned his house upside down looking for his keys. I was kind of a punk about it... "Really, you LITERALLY turned the house upside down? Did your furniture fall over? How are your dishes?" He never figured out what I was talking about.

Ironically, he also told me that the Bible should only be interpreted "literally." But that's a topic for another forum.